The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

surface. Silvery-white light crowded the sides of my vision
as it sparked over my skin—
The skeleton soldiers turned toward me. All of them.
Their mouths opened as they screamed. Smoke poured from
the voids, falling to the ground.
“Oh.” Kieran straightened. “Shit.”
That didn’t remotely articulate what I felt as hundreds of
serpents slithered over the earth, around the holes. Cursing
violently, Casteel stomped his boot down again. The soldiers
moved in unison, sprinting toward me—
In my mind, I didn’t picture the fine webbing. I needed
something faster, more intense. Something final. And I
didn’t even know why, but I thought of the torches inside
the Temple of Nyktos and their silvery flames.
Fire.
Gods, if I was wrong, I wouldn’t be the only one
regretting this, but I pictured the flames in my mind, silvery
white and intense. My hands warmed and tingled. My entire
body throbbed with heat—heat and power. I didn’t know if it
was instinct or if it was because the serpents were so close,
but I lifted my hands.
Silver-white flames spiraled down my arms and erupted
from my palms—erupted from me. Someone gasped. It
could’ve been me. The fire roared, licking the ground and
catching the serpents. The creatures hissed and screeched
as the flames consumed them. The inferno rolled across the
land, hitting the skeletons with a wave of flames. Crackling,
fiery light streaked between Casteel and Kieran, washing
over the soldiers there and then spread out from me,
following exactly what I saw in my mind, burning only the
skeletons and serpents, leaving everything else untouched.
And then I pulled back the eather, picturing it receding and
returning to me. The fire pulsed intensely, straining toward
Casteel and the others as if it wanted to consume them, too,
but I didn’t want that. The flames turned bright white,